Strategic Planning : Strategic And Organizational Planning

A strategic plan is a tool that delivers guidance in achieving a mission or goal with maximum proficiency and control for an organization. Strategic planning is used to transform and revitalize organizations. The plan helps provide an inclusive understanding of opportunities and challenges both internally and externally for the organization. The plan delivers an assessment of the strengths and limitations that are realistic within the company. A well-developed strategic plan will offer a comprehensive approach and empowerment for the stakeholders involved. It is an opportunity for learning and understanding priorities that will drive the business to succeed. Jones (2010), describes how in health care organizations, strategic plans

Strategic Planning is an essential first step in the development of a result-base accountability system,” (Schilder, 2013, p. 1). In strategic planning an organization must know their goals, missions, and how to reach them. Health care facilities are in huge demand for the elderly and for people who lives in low-income communities. A person who receives good quality health care services can prevent the spread of contagious diseases. This paper will describe the need of the community, population it is serving, and a brief description of the facility.

The ever-changing environment in healthcare requires strategic planning teams to address a handful of specific critical issues that will lead to success in the long term. In an industry as diverse and large as health care, Scripps Mercy will face many challenges but will need to avoid the temptation during the environmental assessment phase of its strategic plan. Zuckerman (2012) states, "Failure to produce a limited number of issues to address in subsequent planning activities almost always dooms the strategic planning process" (p. 43), too often healthcare is riddled with issues; an effective environmental assessment will condense these concerns in a solid and clear way. All the new upcoming changes in healthcare reform and technology will have Scripps Mercy face many challenges in information management, their demographic served, and staff recruitment and development.

Strategic leadership in healthcare is the act of transforming a health care organization so that its daily functioning matches the organization’s vision, core values, the cultures it serves, as well as organization’s culture, organizational climate and structure. In implementing strategic leadership, managers and healthcare executives can gain a greater sense of clarity in the changes that need to be made so that the organization can reach its full potential. Healthcare leaders can also make stronger connections internally and externally, with incorporating strategic leadership, to help the organization grow and expand the organization’s reputation, while contribute to the organization’s well-being.

Due to many changes in health service organizations’ internal and external environment, planning can be sometimes onerous (Longest & Darr, 2008, p. 366). Therefore, a well thought strategic plan will guide leaders and keep them focus on the organization’s mission. In health service organizations, strategic planning is emanated at the top level of the pyramid, then pass down to others in leadership positions (Longest & Darr, 2008, p. 366). A strategic planning process consists of many steps: a situational analysis, external environment analysis, internal environment analysis, strategy formulation, strategic implementation, and strategic control. As mentioned before, health service organization faced many challenges, a strategic planning not only helps with planning, controlling, and decision making, but it also allows management to analyze their strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats. Again, the strategic planning process has proven to be effective when implemented by the entire organization.

Selecting the most appropriate strategic plan is essential for an organizations continuous growth and development. Specifically, looking at the health care industry, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a world renowned medical facility, that provides high quality health care services to their patients. This consists of everything from direct patient care to research studies. As a non-profit organization, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is still a revenue generating business. With that being said, as a business they are required to analyze various tendencies in order to make the best decision that is most beneficial for the organization, the patients and all other stakeholder’s. By identifying Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s

Strategic Planning: Due to the current issues, both internally and externally, the organization is facing, Dr. Townsend is challenged to prepare an action plan to implement the proposed strategy needed to restore the organization back to financial health and improve the morale among the physicians and support staff. Another course of planning Dr. Townsend will challenge is the organizations old structure into a way that all patients will be satisfied.

The current health care system can be difficult to navigate and often medical centers need management tools to help them develop strategic plans within their organizations. The SWOT-Analysis is one strategic tool that health care centers can use to formulate a roadmap for their organizations. The SWOT-Analysis examines internal capabilities (strengths and weaknesses) and external developments (opportunities and threats) when determining a strategic plan for an organization (Van Wijngaarden, Scholten, & Van Wijk, 2012). Van Wijngaarden et al. (2012) explains for SWOT-Analysis to prove meaningful throughout an organization, it is important for stakeholders to be part of the brainstorming

In order to determine which course of action would best serve community or direction for a healthcare organization, administration should obtain input from the stakeholders of the organization (Nowicki, 2015). Even though both Medicare and The Joint Commission require healthcare organizations to complete strategic plans, it is important for the business to have a vision and direction in which to best serve their stakeholders (Nowicki, 2015). Strategic planning provides a plan to achieve the organization’s goals, as well as a plan to fund the operational and capital costs for a healthcare organization to serve successfully their

For several decades health care has been tied to the economy and with the current downturn we see continued efforts to control and reduce over-head costs. Health care organizations in their effort to become more efficient and address changes in the industry have altered their strategic business plans. Lee & Alexander (1999) researched organizational change in hospitals and their survival, in this paper I hope to discuss their findings and add other examples to validate their conclusions.

Strategic planning is a completely valid and useful tool for guiding all types of organizations, including healthcare organizations. The organizational level at which the strategic planning process is relevant depends on the unit's size, its complexity and the differentiation of the service provided. A cardiology department, a hemodynamic unit or an electrophysiology unit can be an appropriate level, as long as their plans align with other plans at higher levels. The leader of each unit is the person responsible for promoting the planning process, a core and essential part of his or her role. The process of strategic planning is programmable, systematic, rational, and holistic and integrates the short, medium and long term, allowing the healthcare

Strategic planning involves making decisions about the organization’s long-term goals and strategies and how the organization decides to implement their goals (Bateman, Snell, Konopaske, pg. 113). Strategies help organizations to have a clear perspective on how to go about accomplishing the goals they have in place. All organizations have a clear vision of what their mission and purpose as a company is, they know how to fulfill the mission, vision, and purpose and they know how to ensure that they accomplish all their goals. However, the route the organization takes to define these things determines how effective they will be.

This report is on developing organizational vision and strategic direction. For this purpose a healthcare organization is taken for analyzing the given learning outcomes of the assignment. The first section of this report assesses the development of an organizational vision involving environmental assessment and stakeholders. Second section of this report will discuss about communication of the vision so developed to the stakeholders and finally the last section of this report makes an assessment of the implementation of the organizational vision and strategic direction.

These health care organizations have two types of planning to follow, and they are tactical and strategic planning. When tactical planning takes place, there is a short term goal in mind (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). The course of action for a tactical plan is to achieve a goal within a year or less time period (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). A tactical plan has a smaller scope and shorter time span than a strategic plan (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). It takes several tactical plans to achieve the strategic plan (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). Strategic planning differs from tactical planning, because in strategic plan, the course of action is to achieve goals for the long term (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). Strategic planning goals are usually wanted to be completed with five years (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). The organization’s mission statement purpose and direction are reflected upon strategic planning (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). Top management must view reports on operations, external environments and finances when looking to develop a strategic plan (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102). The development of tactical plans are influenced by strategic plans (Society for Human Resource Management, 2102).

Having a clear vision is extremely important in order to accomplish goals in life and a well-defined strategy is essential in order to fulfill that vision, thereby, both visioning and strategic thinking go hand in hand. As Souba (2004) states that, “[v]ision without a strategy is a daydream; strategy without vision is a nightmare’” (p. 447). It is evident how this competency is essential in each and every sector, in my opinion; this competency will help in the betterment of healthcare sector as well. This paper will address the importance of having a clear strategy and vision pertaining to the healthcare sector and illustrating a case in the light of it.